Daun Kunyit — Turmeric Leaf

Daun kunyit is the leaf of turmeric, Curcuma longa, a rhizome plant carried across the archipelago in the great spread of Austronesian cultivation and grown today in the back garden of nearly every household that cooks. Its place in the kitchen is clearest in Sumatra, where the Minangkabau of West Sumatra shred it into rendang and gulai, and in Javanese kitchens, where it scents soups and fish dishes. Sri Owen treats it among the leaves of the regional kitchen, kept beside the rhizome from which it grows; the cook who has a turmeric plant has both.

The leaf is long, broad and lance-shaped, a clear mid-green, borne on a pale sheath that rises directly from the rhizome, and it can reach half a metre in length. It carries a faint turmeric scent with a green, gingery fragrance, much milder than the root and without its staining power until it is cut and cooked. It is used whole, knotted or torn, for a dish that simmers long, or sliced across into very fine ribbons (daun kunyit iris) that are stirred in at the end of a gulai or a curry of fish. The leaf is not eaten for its texture; its ribs are tough, and the thin shreds are the form in which it is swallowed.

Daun kunyit is eaten in the company of coconut milk, chilli, galangal, lemongrass and the rich beef and fish of Sumatran gulai and rendang, and it goes with plain white rice and the bitter greens of the Padang table. It is drunk with nothing in particular, since the dishes it perfumes are taken with water or hot tea. The structural reason is that the leaf's green, faintly bitter scent cuts across the fat of coconut milk without adding heat, giving the sauce a freshness that the dried spices cannot.